Jacoby Miles a 15-year-old competitive gymnast from Puyallup, Wash., stepped up to the uneven bars to practice a move she’d done successfully a thousand times. Disoriented, she landed on her neck, with only an 8-inch mat to break her fall.

Miles was immediately taken to St. Joseph Hospital in Tacoma, where a CAT scan showed her C4 vertebrae had been dislocated. Doctors have told the family that the chances of using her legs again would be in the “miracle category.”